Prints and Principles

My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Tuesday, 14 August 2018

“Sensim amor sensus occupat” (Slowly
sense of love takes over), 1627/59, illustration to Jacob Cats’ (1577–1660)
(known with respect and affection as “Father Cats”) “Proteus”, first published in 1618, and
“Sinne- en minnebeelden” (Images of mind
and memory), first published in 1627. This engraving is from the 1659 edition
of “Alle de Wercken van den heere Jacob Cats …” (Complete Works of Jacob Cats),
pages 11–12, with reversed image rendered with finer engraved craftsmanship than
the first editions and with printed text on both sides (as published).

Lettered in two columns below the plate:
“’tNeemt toe, men weet niet hoe. …” ("It's important, people do not know
how. …)

Condition: faultless impression in
pristine condition.

I am selling this magnificent, museum-quality
leaf for the total cost of AU$187 (currently US$135.82/EUR119.16/GBP106.36 at
the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the
world.

If you are interested
in purchasing this superb engraving of the highest quality, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

This print has been sold

My interest in the emblem prints
associated with Jacob Cats—affectionately called “Father Cats” by the Dutch—is
a sad story. What happened is that a couple of years ago I set out on a
personal mission to visit the rather small church named, Kloosterkerk, in The
Hague (Belgium), where Jacob Cats is supposed to be buried. The reason that my
story is sad is not that I failed to find his burial site in the church, but that
when I asked a very helpful church attendant where the great writer was buried
I was first asked where I was from and on replying, “Australia”, I was then quizzed
as to why any Australian would have an interest in the great writer … to which
I answered with eyes bulging and truly shocked that "ALL Australians know about
Father Cats as his proverbs are EVERYWHERE!" Mmm … a little bit of a stretched
truth but I did discover that what remains of marvellous Jacob Cats is only a
commemorative plaque on a column. Now that is VERY sad!

My understanding of this illustration
and the accompanying text on the page is a synthesis of commentary explanations
offered by the “Emblem Project Utrecht” (http://emblems.let.uu.nl/c162706.html#tr)
and from tonight’s after-dinner conversation with our family polymath. The
short version is that image shows the memory of a chap (hence the clouds around
his hand) cutting the name of his lover, Phyllis (Phyllida)—the Greek name for leafy
foliage or green bough—into the trunk of a lime tree. Over time the lover sees that
his carved lady-love’s name grows in size as the tree “heals” itself in a
similar way that his love has also grown. Interestingly, the growth of such an
inscription on a tree does not “grow” higher but rather grows wider following
the radial expansion of the trunk.

I should mention at this point that
there are significant additional meanings, such as the moral imperative to parents to ensure that their vices are not introduced to their children or
the vices will grow like the proverbial marks on trees shown here.

Monday, 13 August 2018

“Landscape with a Rowboat” (TIB title)
or “Landscape with the Emblem of the Donkey Laden with Delicacies” (Rijksmuseum
title), 1598–99, from the series, “Emblems in a Landscape”, after a lost
drawing by Matthias Bril the younger (1550–1583), published as an
illustration in Giovanni Andrea Alciato’s (aka Alciati) (1492–1550) “Emblemata”
(1599), in Venice, with privilege from Pope Clemens VIII(1536–1605).

Etching and engraving on fine laid paper
with small margins and backed with a support sheet.

Condition: a superb, crisp, richly inked and well-printed impression with small margins (approx. 1 cm), backed on a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. There is a minor printer’s
crease (i.e. a crease occurring during the printing process) at left otherwise
the print is in a near pristine condition (i.e. there are no
tears, holes, abrasions, significant stains or foxing).

I am selling this superb and exceedingly rare lifetime impression that not even
the British Museum online repository appears to hold for the total cost of
AU$330 (currently US$240.54/EUR210.59/GBP85.68 at the time of this listing)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing
important print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will
send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

At first glance this very beautiful landscape
executed in the late 1500s may seem to be as conceptually unchallenging as are the activities of the people
portrayed in it (viz. a traveller resting while his goods-laden donkey munches
on thistles; men in a rowboat revealing their awkward efforts to traverse a
stream). Of course,after careful study of what is shown, images from this time were seldom simple in terms of the meanings that they project. Certainly, this image meets this description as what is depicted is loaded with symbolism. Note for
instance, the enormous nesting stork—symbolic of maternal vigilance, good
fortune and a long life—crowning the top of the tower on the left while the stork's mates fly overhead. More critically important in this scene, however, is the moral imperative that would have
been clear to 16th century viewers regarding the chap with his donkey as the
Rijksmuseum explains: “This is the representation of an emblem in which the
moral of the story shows that rich people always find a reason to complain
despite their wealth.”

Sunday, 12 August 2018

“Richard II”, 1775, from the series, “Twelve
Characters from Shakespeare” (1775–76), etched and published by John Hamilton
Mortimer in London.

Etching on laid paper, trimmed around
the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (oval sheet trimmed at the image
borderline) 34.4 x 28.3 cm

The text lettered on the plate but
trimmed off in this impression is offered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art: (titled
above the image borderline): "Richard II"; (below the image
borderline) "For within the hollow crown, / That rounds the mortal temples
of a King, / Keeps Death his court, & there the antick sits / Scoffing his
State & grinning at his pomp, / Allowing him a breath, a little scene / To
monarchize, be feard & kill with looks / Infusing him with self & vain
conceit, / As if this flesh which walls about our life / Were brass impregnable
& humoured thus / Comes at last & with a little pin / Bores thro' his
castle walls & farewell King / Richard II. Act 3, Scene 2 / Published May
20, 1775 by J. Mortimer, Norfolk Street, Strand"

“The character from Shakespeare's
'Richard II', head and shoulders in an oval, directed to right with head turned
to left, looking over right shoulder, eyes wide with fear, wearing crown
surmounted by small figure of death; thin border at edge of plate.”

Condition: crisp, well-inked and
well-printed impression trimmed around the image borderline (with loss of the
lettered text beyond this borderline), backed with a support sheet of archival
(millennium quality) washi paper. There is a small spot of darkening at the top of the sheet, otherwise it is in excellent condition (i.e. there are
no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or foxing).

I am selling this exceptionally rare and
highly sought after etching or AU$420 in total (currently US$306.82/EUR268.77/GBP240.23
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this
large and famous masterpiece showing the skeletal figure of Death wearing a
feather crown about to dispatch the vain and arrogant Richard II with a pin,
please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

I don’t imagine that many folk would
have difficulty in reading this remarkable image as a comment on the folly of
kingly power. After all, Richard II is shown with the tiny feather-crowned
skeletal figure of Death lolling within Richard’s crown and about to dispatch
him with a VERY long pin. Certainly, this image of Richard as a vain man—what
the Met describes as “an arrogant potentate, gorgeously dressed in a turban and
jewels”(https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/62.602.162/)
—fits well with Mortimer’s aim for his series of twelve Shakespearean characters
(in which this etching features) as proposed by Constance C. McPhee (2016): to “explore a subtle range of tragic emotions
and use quotes from the plays to point out the instability of royal power and
social position.” (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/shaa/hd_shaa.htm)

Regarding Mortimer’s motivation to explore
“tragic emotions”, the following passage is inscribed below the image
borderline (sadly trimmed off in this impression):

Condition: crisp, well-inked and
well-printed impression with wide margins (as published). The sheet is in near
pristine condition with only light signs of handling and a faint stain in the
margin at the lower-right corner.

I am selling this delicately beautiful neoclassical engraving of the allegorical figure, Poetry, wearing
her usual wreath of laurel leaves and holding a book, for AU$147 in total
(currently US$107.39/EUR94.07/GBP84.08 at the time of posting this listing)

including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of
course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this masterpiece of engraving displaying
extraordinary sensitivity in rendering transitions of tone, please contact me
(oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make
the payment easy.

Thank goodness that the British Museum
has nearly all of the early states for this masterpiece of neo-classical
engraving (see the BM online collection: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?searchText=La+Poesia+morghen).
After all, what the progressive stages reveal is that the engraver, Raphael
Morghen, was as mythodical and as sensitive in “bulding” this image so that it
glows sublimely as the original great Florentine master, Carlo Dolci, was in
capturing the jewel like radiance of his paintings. Indeed, I have just read
the introductory notes to the exhibition showcasing Doci’s painting at the
Nasher Museum (August 24, 2017– January 14, 2018), “The Medici’s Painter: Carlo
Dolci and 17th-Century Florence”, and discovered that “Dolci would recite the
litany ‘Ora pro nobis (pray for us)’ between each brush stroke …” (https://nasher.duke.edu/exhibitions/the-medicis-painter-2/).
Interestingly, the close-up detail of a painting shown on the cover of the
catalogue for the Nasher Museum exhibition is the painting that this engraving
reproduces.

Condition: crisp, well-inked and
well-printed impression with small margins (approx. 1 cm), backedwith a support sheet of archival (millennium
quality) washi paper. The sheet is in excellent condition (i.e. there are no
tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing).

I am selling this almost iconic image of
two elderly women gossiping on the street for AU$242 in total (currently US$176.98/EUR154.38/GBP138.62
at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere
in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this
small graphically strong etching from one of the truly great masters of the
17th century, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will
send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

There is so much to examine regarding the
body language of these two elderly women gossiping in the street. For instance,
I see the lady on the left as chuckling about some event with lightly clasped
hands holding her dress while her friend on the right smiles knowingly with fingers
tightly intertwined and raised as if thinking inwardly. Going further—and I may
be going too far with this next personal reading of these figures—I see the left
lady’s bundling of her dress and her outspread shoe angled beyond the lady on
the right as character attributes expressing her forceful character while her
friend with her slightly hunched posture as projecting a somewhat passive and
introverted demeanour.

Beyond the body language of these women,
I am also fascinated with how the background supports expressed meanings. For
instance, note how the form of the foliage mass behind the ladies is like a
visual analogue for a wave of spirited conversation from the lady on the left “landing”
on the lady on the right. There may also be meanings to a gleaned by
correlating the hive of activity behind the left lady with the serenity of the
scene punctuated with a silhouetted cross behind the right lady.

Condition: richly inked impression with
small margins and backed with a support sheet of archival (millennium quality)
washi paper. The upper left corner margin is restored otherwise the sheet is in
a good condition with minor signs of age toning and handling.

I am selling this small but exquisitely
rendered etching of the waterfalls and cascades at Tivoli (Italy) for the total
cost of AU$160 (currently US$117.09/EUR101.98/GBP91.58 at the time of this
listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this
remarkable nature study showing the effect of raking light on foliage, rocks
and water, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send
you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Dietricy was a bit of an artistic
chameleon in the sense that he had the gift to mimic other artists’ styles.
This ability, however, did not mean that his approach to image making was
rinsed clean of showing personal stylistic traits. For example, this very
beautiful nature study of the waterfalls and cascades at Tivoli is a fine
example of his very insightful and somewhat unique approach to portraying
spatial depth.

In one sense, Dietricy uses the traditional
approach for showing spatial depth by making the foreground waterfalls slightly
darker than those further away and employs an increasing amount of white space
around each line to suggest an even greater lightening of tone into the far
distance. There is, however, another device that Dietricy employs to portray
depth and this, I see, as being his personal stylistic hallmark: Dietricy uses
a transition from comparatively small, multi-directional cross-hatched strokes
to render forms in the foreground to parallel aligned strokes in the middle
distance and finally to almost horizontal strokes designed to portray distant
mountains and sky.